The relationship between sports betting and college athletics has been the topic of much debate since the start of the year, and not for particularly positive reasons.
However, in Rhode Island, a bill that would legalize betting on state college sports has passed the Senate and is headed toward the House Finance Committee.
Senate Bill 3, filed by Senate President, Sen. Dominick Ruggerio, amends former sports betting legislation to redefine “collegiate sports or athletic event” and “sporting event”.
It would reverse the ban on collegiate sports betting in the current sports betting legislation and allow bettors to wager on college games within Rhode Island or out-of-state fixtures, featuring a Rhode Island college athletics team.
As with many college sports betting measures, betting would be allowed on those events that take place in tournaments such as March Madness. This specific bill defines collegiate sports tournaments as “a series of collegiate sports or athletic events involving four or more collegiate teams that make up a single unit of competition”.
SB3’s journey through the Senate took over two months, first being introduced to the Senate Special Legislation and Veterans Affairs Committee on Jan 10. It was held for further study before being passed through the committee on Mar. 22.
This week, the bill was then read and debated on the Senate floor, before being voted through on Tuesday.
Senate President Ruggerio told local media that the measure will ‘boost the state’s revenues’ and hinted that it is in response to the opening of the Massachusetts sports betting market, where Rhode Islanders could hop over the border to bet on college sports.
“I think it’s something that will raise revenue next year,” Ruggerio said. “I’m also looking at igaming. I think that will be a substantial revenue generator down the line where people can stay at home and basically do everything similar to what they do on sports betting.”
Having passed the Senate, SB3 will now go to the House Finance Committee where it will be debated and potentially amended. Currently, the bill has not been scheduled for a specific date in the Finance Committee but the RI House schedule states that any bills that aim to pass this session must leave Committee by Apr. 11.
Rhode Island originally legalized online sports betting back in March 2019, launching the market in September of that year. The smallest state in the US imposes a 51% tax rate on operators’ revenue, a rate that New York later took inspiration from.
